My first build. I need a ton of advice.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:
The next few days.
BUDGET RANGE: $1,000.
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, surfing the internet, ipod music storage.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: any
PARTS PREFERENCES: any

OVERCLOCKING: Yes / No /
Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1280x1024

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: This would be my first build. I'd like something with a gaming emphasis that I can expand later as needed. Thanks for the help.

What you are doing won't require 1000 dollars your activities are not very demanding anyway,you want to go with a quad since that seems to be the way of the future right now, you can build a nice phenom 2 x4 955 set up for that price,you won't need cross fire (honestly even the 955 is overkill) you want a nice graphics card that will last you a while your resolution isnt very high....honestly i'd save some money by buying a tri core pheom 2 x3 720 BE,a 4870 or gtx260,a western digital raptor for your operating system/programs and a large drive perhaps a 640 gb or 1 TB drive for your music and movies, you should not worry about crossfire or sli but thats just me i prefer single card solutions that way i don't have to spend too much on power supplies,get a nice aluminum case from cooler master or lian li, and then the money you save use it to get a new and better monitor (a gamer in 2009 should not be playing on nothing less than a 1680x1050 resolution) all that should fit within your budget if you plan on buying your parts from newegg.com....you can also go the intel route but their 775 socket wont receive any upgrades and the i5 does not come out till later so amd is the best price to performance at this point. just my two cents.

Full metal pretty much nailed it, go with the 720 and over clock it, and save some money on a cheaper motherboard and you might save just enough money to get a new monitor (get the 4870 gpu)

$1038 will be okay. I think I'll go ahead and order this afternoon. Thanks again for all the help. I really appreciate it.